Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church

File:Luis Fernando Castillo Méndez.jpg

Dom Luis Fernando Castillo Méndez (b. 1922), patriarch of ICAB

The Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church (ICAB - Igreja Católica Apostólica Brasileira) is an independent Catholic church established in 1945 by Brazilian Bishop Dom Carlos Duarte Costa, a former Roman Catholic bishop of Botucatu.

The denomination has 48 dioceses and claims 500,000-700,000 members. Its current head is Patriarch Dom Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez, with Dom Josivaldo Pereira de Oliveira serving as President of the National Council. It is the mother church of the Worldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic National Churches (ICAN -Igrejas Católicas Apostólicas Nacionais), a loose communion of churches in 14 countries.

Beliefs and organization

The Church accepts the Nicene, Apostles', and Athanasian creeds, and observes seven sacraments (baptism, Eucharist, confirmation, penance, unction, ordination, and matrimony).

ICAB practices open communion for all Christians who acknowledge the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The Church acknowledges divorce as a reality of life and permitted in Holy Scripture, and will marry divorced persons and baptize the children of divorced or single parents.

ICAB teaches that birth control is acceptable in certain circumstances (such as for disease prevention). It opposes abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, and any other taking of human life.

The Church has three administrative branches, in line with the conception of a nation state: executive (Episcopal Council), legislative (National Council), and judicial (Superior Ecclesiastical Court). There are currently 48 bishops and 38 dioceses within Brazil.

There also appears to be a 'rogue' version of the ICAB present in Brazil under Dom Ivan Dutra Moraes [1], which offers an alternative list of national clergy, some names appearing on both lists.

History

Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa was an outspoken critic of the regime of Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945) and of the Vatican's perceived cozy relationship with fascist regimes. He also publicly criticized the doctrine of papal infallibility and Roman Catholic views on divorce and clerical celibacy. Largely as a result of his outspoken views, he was moved from his post as bishop of Botucatu in 1937, and was redesignated as the titular bishop of Maura (an extinct diocese of North Africa). Duarte Costa continued to criticize the government and the Church, advocating policies that were regarded by the authorities as Communist. In 1944 the Brazilian government imprisoned him, but later freed him under political pressure by the United States and Great Britain.

When, in the following year (1945), Duarte Costa denounced the Odessa Operation, which was allegedly organized by the Vatican in order to facilitate the escape of Nazi officers, he was excommunicated by Pope Pius XII. One month later on August 18, he formed the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church (ICAB), declaring: "The Brazilian Catholic Church is a religious society, established for the propagation of the Christianity in all the national territory, which is separated from the Roman Apostolic Church because of the errors that it has been committing since the moment when it left the catacombs, exchanging the beauty of the teachings of Christ -- simplicity, humility, poverty, love of neighbor -- for a preeminently mercantilistic institution, where pomp reigns, doing damage to true Christianity, which is found in the humble, the laborers, the legitimate representatives of Jesus of Nazareth."

In 1949 the Brazilian government temporarily suppressed all public worship by ICAB, maintaining that the similarity of its liturgy and vestments to those of the Roman Catholic Church would result in confusion and were tantamount to deception of the public. However, a few months later the churches were permitted to reopen, provided that their liturgy would not duplicate the Roman Catholic liturgy, and their clergy would wear gray clerical attire in contrast to the black clothing worn by Catholic clergy.

Dom Carlos set about to implement a number of reforms in ICAB of what he saw as problems in the Roman Catholic Church. Clerical celibacy was abolished. Rules for the reconciliation of divorced persons were implemented. The liturgy was translated into the vernacular, and in emulation of a short-lived experiment in France, clergy were expected to live and work amongst the people, and support themselves and their ministries, by holding secular employment. Within a short time ICAB began to be identified as “The Church of the Poor”.

Shortly after founding the church Dom Carlos consecrated two more bishops, Salomão Barbosa Ferraz (August 15, 1945), and the Venezuelan Luis Fernando Castillo Mendez (May 3, 1948). These three bishops went on to establish similar autonomous Catholic Apostolic National Churches in several other Latin American countries. Dom Carlos personally served as consecrator or co-consecrator of eleven additional bishops, each of whom took a leadership role in either the Brazilian church or one of the other national churches.

In 1958 Bishop Ferraz left ICAB to rejoin the Catholic Church. Shortly thereafter, in 1961, Dom Carlos Duarte Costa died, and the ICAB underwent several years of tumult as dissensions, schisms, and multiple claimants to the patriarchal throne threw the church into disarray. José Aires da Cruz briefly succeeded Duarte Costa as primate in 1961, and by 1964 Antidio Jose Vargas of Santa Catarina was primate, consecrating the Italian Luigi Mascolo as Bishop of Rio de Janeiro.

Some sources indicate that Bishop Luis Castillo Méndez assumed leadership of ICAB upon Duarte Costa's death in 1961, but this seems unlikely based on contemporary accounts such as Anson's. What is clear is that in 1982 Castillo Méndez was elected president of the Episcopal Council, and was designated Patriarch of ICAB in 1988 and Patriarch of ICAN (the international communion) in 1990. While no longer president of the Episcopal Council, Dom Luis still serves as Patriarch to the present day (2007). The Church is considered to have become more theologically, and generally, conservative under the Patriarchate of Dom Luis.

Apostolic succession

The ICAB holds that apostolic succession is maintained through the consecration of its bishops in unbroken personal succession back to the apostles. All ICAB bishops trace their line of succession back to Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa, who was consecrated by the Roman Catholic Church. Every consecration strictly follows the Roman Pontifical.

The ICAB cites the case of Salomão Barbosa Ferraz as evidence that its apostolic succession is valid, even by Roman Catholic standards. Just over a month after the church's foundation, on August 15, 1945, Bishop Duarte Costa presided as the principal celebrant at the episcopal consecration of Salomão Barbosa Ferraz. Thirteen years later (in 1958 under Pope John XXIII) Ferraz reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church and was fully recognized as a bishop, even though he was married at the time. Ferraz was not ordained or consecrated again, even conditionally; however he was not appointed to a diocese immediately. He did pastoral work in the Archdiocese of São Paolo until May 12 1963, when he was appointed titular bishop of Eleutherna by Pope John XXIII. He attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, and Pope Paul VI appointed him to serve on one of Vatican II's working commissions. Upon his death in 1969, Bishop Ferraz was buried with full honors accorded a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus it is inferred that the Holy Orders conferred by Duarte Costa after having left the Roman Catholic are accepted as valid but illicit.

Nothing is thereby inferred, however, with regard to subsequent sacramental acts performed by Duarte Costa's successors, and some authorities continue to question the validity of sacraments performed by ICAB clergy, often due to ICAB's perceived failure to hold its clergy to tight doctrinal and ritual standards. The Roman Catholic Church in Brazil is instructed to treat ICAB clergy (including bishops) wishing to return to the Catholic Church as laypeople, except in extraordinary circumstances. It is also now evident that the Patriarch Luis Fernando Castillo Méndez was not, as the ICAB claims, ordained priest aged 21 in Spain on Thursday 10 August 1944; if this is the case, according to Catholic Theology it would not only render his episcopal consecration irregular, but would probably also render the consecration invalid. Most of the current ICAB clergy and their counterparts across the world derive their Holy Orders from Luis Fernando Castillo Méndez.

Membership and international communion

The number of members of ICAB and other affiliated Catholic Apostolic National Churches is not well documented. The ICAN website lists 48 dioceses and claims around two million members in the Worldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic National Churches (ICAN). The international figures appear to be inflated, given that ICAB estimates its current membership in Brazil at between 500,000-700,000. Observers in Brazil believe many Roman Catholics may find themselves inadvertently participating in ICAB events and services.

There are a likewise fluctuating number of partner Catholic Apostolic National Church groups around the world. This would appear to be a tenuous communion. Fourteen sister churches are currently listed in the communion's websites, although some seem to shift in and out of communion.

A World Council of the communion was held in Brazil in 2005, and a further Council in Mexico in 2010 has been mentioned.

External links

• Website of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church
• Website of a parish in Brazil
• Website of another parish in Brazil